Twin Gender Reveal
LMents of Style uses affiliate links. By clicking on certain hyperlinks and buying a product, you may help me make a small commission off your purchase. It's links like these that keep this site going. Thank you for your support!
THE MOMENT YOUāVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR - MY TWIN GENDER REVEAL. Jk, maybe you have and maybe you havenāt been waiting for this moment. Nick and I have known since the end of April, so for almost 2 months now! We informed our families shortly after. Keep on reading for what we are having, the type of twins they are, and other thoughts and ideas for gender reveals.
New here? You might want to start with my posts about how we find out we were having twins here and what my first trimester with twins was like here.
WHAT ARE YOU HAVING?
We are having a boy and a girl!
As I mentioned in this post, we are having di-di twins. This means that they have their own amniotic sacs and own placentas. Di-Di twins have a 50% chance of being boy/girl and a 25% chance of being either girl/girl or boy/boy. Stats clearly won out here - hah!
Side note - Boy / girl twins are always fraternal because they have different DNA (XX and XY). If we were having girl/girl or boy/boy we wouldnāt truly know if they were fraternal or identical until after they were born and we compared their DNA.
Madewell Tie-Strap Dress (c/o, also sold here, similar cheaper version here) | Menās White Denim Jacket | Menās White T-Shirt | Twin Gender Reveal Cake by Sweet Dreams Bakery OC
WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE HAVING? WHAT DID THE OLD WIVESā TALES SAY?
I thought it was a boy/girl and Nick thought it was girl/girl. I thought it was boy/girl because my symptoms were all over the place and didnāt point to just one thing. I think itās kind of hard to follow old wivesā tales with twins because it isnāt ānormalā per se. Regardless, here is what the traditions pointed to:
Salty vs. Sweet. I really didnāt crave anything sweet in the first trimester. I mostly wanted savory / salty things which points to boy.
Morning Sickness. You guys know I had it BAD, which points to a girl.
Pregnancy Glow. In the first trimester I felt like I had dull skin and had breakouts. This points to girl.
Heart Rate. I canāt recall the exact heart rates, but I do know that they were different - like 20ish beats different, which pointed to a boy and a girl, since girls are said to have higher heart rates (above 140) and boys are said to have lower (below 140).
Chinese Chart. This isnāt actually done for more than one baby, but is kind of interesting. The date of my last period was in January; however, conception could have been January or February. January says girl, February says boy. This is funny since there are two eggs and it is very likely the girl was in January and the boy was in February, as XX sperm live longer than XY sperm and the conception dates could have been different.
Mayan Chart. Again, not for multiples, but if we go off the timeline above on the Chinese calendar, it matches up for boy and girl. If the month and age at conception (Iām 29) are both even or both odd, it is a girl. If one is even and one is odd, then it is a boy. Iāve also seen some information that references year conceived, not month, so not 100% sure on this one.
High or Low. I donāt know that I was ācarryingā really at all since you couldnāt really tell I was pregnant until like week 16+ weeks, but I felt like I was carrying lower which points to boy.
Hot or Cold. I definitely felt more hot than cold in the first trimester, but Iām not sure if thatās because I was clammy from vomiting all the time. Running warmer points to girl.
*I know there are other ones like the ring test, but I didnāt do those.
WHEN AND HOW DID YOU FIND OUT?
I opted to do bloodwork around 10/11 weeks. This allowed us to find out the sexes of the babies earlier, but also tested for genetic risks, which was really important to my doctor. There is only one blood test that can distinguish sexes of multiples - the Natara Panorama test. I did the blood work on April 6th and received the results April 20th. If we would have opted out of the bloodwork, we could have found out as early as 14 weeks via ultrasound if the babies were cooperating / showing their parts. Whatās ironic is that we ended up finding out around 14 weeks anyway because we waited a week to find out.
I actually sent my login information / results to a local baker on April 20th and had her bake us a cake to find out. I ordered from Sweet Dreams Bakery OC in Orange County and she was great to work with! After I placed my order, I actually learned that she graduated from Baylor University as well, which was a serendipitous surprise to say the least. She followed my vision to a T. I said do all pink if both girls, all blue if all boys and alternating (it was a 4 layer cake) if it was a boy and a girl. I told her I wanted chocolate frosting and then maybe pops of green / gold and she went from there. That being said, she was the only one (besides our doctors) who knew their sexes before we did. I had family/friends offer to look and share for us, but I wanted me and Nick to know before anyone else. Maybe that makes me a psycho, but I couldnāt stand the thought of someone else knowing before us and I also didnāt want to give someone the opportunity to accidentally tell us or tell others before we even knew. Iāve been to gender reveal parties where the host was spilling the sex of the baby prior to the main event!
I picked up the cake early afternoon on April 26th and that evening Nick and I took the cake to the beach for a private little gender reveal. It was really sweet and intimate!
DID YOU HAVE A GENDER REVEAL PARTY? HOW DID YOU TELL OTHERS?
Nope! I might have considered a small gender reveal party if our families lived closer. Even if I would have done that, it would have been an announcement for them / Nick and I would have already known. No shade to gender reveal parties, but I wanted that moment of finding out to be ours and ours alone. We did however video our reaction / cutting the cake and sent that to our families. Some of them sent us back reaction videos which were so fun to get. I actually have a lot of videos I need to piece together and share, because they are so good! We were able to tell a couple people in person that night, which we did by giving them a piece of cake. For others, we just sent a selfie of us and the cut cake. It was a fun and personal way to announce! Note that these people already knew that I was pregnant with twins, so it was a pregnancy update for them versus a brand new announcement.
Madewell Tie-Strap Dress (c/o, also sold here, similar cheaper version here) | Cardigan (old and cardigans arenāt really in stock right now, somewhat similar) | Senreve Doctor Bag (get $50 off with discount code ELLEMULENOS) | Aerie Sunglasses
OTHER GENDER REVEAL IDEAS I CONSIDERED
I kind of knew I wanted it to be food related, so that is mostly what all of my ideas centered around. It was a little tricky with twins, so that is why I ultimately went with a layer cake versus any other ideas.
Cake pops / cake balls
Cookie with coloring in the middle
Cookie with a colored layer under the main frosting
Chocolate dipped cupcakes where the chocolate shell would hide the color of the frosting
PiƱata cake
PiƱata cupcakes
PiƱata candy that you crack open with a small hammer
Chocolate covered Oreos with the white creme dyed
Truffles with m&ms on the inside
Gradation (ombre) layer cake
Written on the back of macarons or macaron frosting
Cotton candy
Lottery scratch off (okay not food, but I thought this was cute)
ANY IDEA FOR NAMES? NURSERY COLORS ETC?
Maybe? We have a list of names we like that we actually began with our last pregnancy. I think that whole experience caused us to pause and discuss names a little later than most probably do. We didnāt talk about names until that night we learned the sexes. We really didnāt discuss it again until after the anatomy scan (had it last Friday) at 20 weeks. I * think * we may have first names narrowed down as of this week, but not necessarily middle names. Even then Iām not sure when and if we will share those before birth. Who knows - we may meet them and decide that their name is something else! What can I sayā¦names are hard! We are very into name meanings and being intentional, so a lot of thought has gone into them. In my opinion boy names are harder than girl names, so that is a bit of a roadblock as well. Youād think it would be easier since we get to pick out 4 names total! I think it would be easier if they were girl/girl or even boy/boy. We will share them soon enough, but really and truly we arenāt sure what their names will be yet.
Regarding nursery colors, we really werenāt sure until recently that they would even have a nursery. We decided to take the guest bed and office shelving out of guest room / office and turn it into their room only fairly recently. Weāll likely put a standing desk in our bedroom for Nickās office and move the rest of the items to the garage. We will bring the guest bed in from the garage and put it in our spacious living room when we have guests. It is on a different floor, so itās kind of like having a separate room in and of itself! We will also continue searching for a 3 bedroom, but make do with what we have in the meantime. To answer the color question, I think we are going with a light sage green and then pops of white, natural / light wood, and grey. Green happens to be both of our favorite colors and works well as a unisex room them, plus the tint of green we picked is very calming. I may get accent or wall paper stickers, but we wonāt be painting or anything like that, mostly because we are renting. Iām sure Iāll share the set up with you once it is up late summer.
WHICH IS TWIN A AND WHICH IS TWIN B? WHAT SIDES ARE THEY ON?
Actually my doctors call them differently (I have an OB and a MFM), so I will just tell you which side they are on versus which is twin a and which is twin b. The girl is on my maternal right and the boy is on my maternal left. I really canāt feel much yet, likely because my placentas are posterior; however, the boy keeps jamming up against my ribs, so my left side has been a lot more sore than my right.
I think thatās all for now! I plan on covering topics like how we told people we were expecting, morning sickness tips, and more very soon. Iāll also be back with a second trimester update near the beginning of August. Seems so close, yet so far. My belly button canāt believe we are only a little over halfway through the pregnancy, but weāll make it. Send sweet thoughts and prayers, along with some ankle rubs ;)
Like what you read? Click here to subscribe to my weekly newsletter. I recap the week and share recent posts you might have missed!
